The dirty war for oil!

Top Kremlin operatives and a flamboyant Russian politician reaped millions of dollars in profits under the U.N. oil-for-food program by selling oil that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein allowed them to buy at a deep discount, a Senate investigation has concluded.

The allegations -- which also include descriptions of kickbacks paid to Hussein -- are detailed in hundreds of pages of reports and documents made public last night by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in advance of a hearing tomorrow.

The documents outline a trail of oil and money that leads directly from Iraq to the Kremlin and the former chief of staff to Russian President Vladimir Putin and former president Boris Yeltsin. The report said Iraq sought to influence and reward the Russian government because it sits on the powerful U.N. Security Council that oversaw sanctions against the Hussein government. Russia repeatedly sided with Iraq on issues before the Security Council.

There were like, 123 people found in one listing of people involved in this kind of crap. The # of countries involved were... gosh it was so long ago when i read the list... like 20? Mainly arab and african nations... but French diplomats and Russia were also getting huge sums of money

Oh well they have some of the worlds largest oil reserves yet no way to refine a lot of it! Can't blame them for trying to stay competative in the industrial world... but hey, do a crime, and you get caught.

This forum is boring lol. I would have gotten 30 pages of flameing in my old forum :D I like it here i think

Again disinformation, Khodorovsky is getting jail sentence and all rats are spewing dirt to demonize Putin. Most of the biggest thiefs and swindlers luckilly escaped to Britain and Israel.
BTW.Putin is the best thing ever happened for Russia. We need someone like him here!
I admire Putin for staying cool when on all fronts he is attacked. Great Man !

Documents released Monday by the minority Democrats on Coleman’s subcommittee examined two issues: Bayoil’s involvement in oil-for-food and a single instance that saw Saddam’s regime smuggle more than 7 million barrels of oil out of the Iraqi port of Khor al-Amaya, apparently with U.S. knowledge, in the weeks before the invasion in 2003.

U.S. link
The report found that Bayoil imported some 200 million barrels over two years starting in September 2000 and sold it to U.S. oil companies. That was at a time when Saddam was trying to tinker with the price of oil so that when he sold it, companies could be compelled to pay him kickbacks.

The report claimed that Bayoil paid “directly or indirectly” some $37 million in kickbacks to Saddam even at a time that the United States and other members of the council had realized what Saddam was doing and began ordering price hikes to quash the kickbacks scheme.

Hopefully it will all come out in time with investigation. It's disgusting how many people/countries have been involved, and by no means should this be excused. Regarding the OP, however, does anyone believe the U.S. and/or U.S. companies have clean hands when it comes to oil? My point is only to understand the premise of casting stones.